


A book of the dead

by qwerty



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Books, Gen, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-01
Updated: 2010-09-01
Packaged: 2017-10-11 09:56:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwerty/pseuds/qwerty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaius was not the first, much less the only, owner of the book of magic he had given Merlin when Merlin first came to Camelot. Five spells that no one will read again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A book of the dead

Gaius was not the first, much less the only, owner of the book of magic he had given Merlin when Merlin first came to Camelot. As he had said, his master had given it to him when he was a young man, just learning about the wonders magic can bring to pass.

What Gaius did not tell Merlin was what Gaius only realised for himself after he had spent several months puzzling over its pages, trying to discover its secrets. That it was hardly the most suitable text for instructing a young warlock just beginning to touch the full blossom of his developing powers, the spells within being practically all too complicated to learn, too specific to be useful, or too powerful to evoke for the most part, and too lacking in any reasonable system to make sense. It was a useful text for keeping foolish, too-curious young warlocks from getting into any real trouble until they learnt some sense and discipline. It was the only text that survived the purge, precisely because it was unusable.

No one counted on Merlin being, well, Merlin. Fortunately. At need, Merlin found a spell that looked closest to what he desired, recited the words, and by sheer stubbornness forced things to happen because he wanted them to. It had always been that way for him: the words had never been necessary, but learning them had taught him discipline and focus if nothing else, delineating the bounds of his will, to Gaius's amazement.

Were Merlin like anyone else, he would have found the book quite as useless as Gaius and his teachers before him had. Truthfully, only five of the eighty-and-some spells in the book were at all useable and useful in any sense, and no one had seen any of them for years, even generations.

Two of the pages were glued together so well and for so long that to separate them would destroy them altogether. The first page was a love spell to create the illusion of emotion; the second revoked the illusion when the caster could no longer stand the lie as would inevitably happen, as no magic could do more than enslave one into a lifeless puppet nothing like the beloved.

There was a spell to remove boils, surprisingly simple and effective. It was torn out, or rather, it was on the other side of a page that was torn out. That spell allowed restful sleep even to Seers, as the last to use it found out, having woken from a dreamless sleep to find his nightmare had come to pass while he slept.

One spell was simply wiped from the book as if never written. Only a blank page remained, that would take no ink. Writing smeared and faded away no matter how long it was left to dry or how much sand was used to dry it. It was a simple spell, one that anyone could use; harmless, reliable. It revealed the ability to use magic.

Erasing this spell was the last and most effective magic Gaius had and would ever work in his life.


End file.
